Shelter For Children Overflows

March 22, 1989|By Rob Karwath.

A shelter for abused and neglected children, opened last summer on the North Side, became overcrowded Monday night, forcing six wards of the state to sleep on cots in nearby state offices, officials said Tuesday.

Officials of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and a nonprofit group under contract to run the Columbus-Maryville Reception Center, at Montrose and Clarendon Avenues, said the center was back below its 100-child capacity after foster homes were found for some children.

``That will not happen again,`` said Rev. John Smyth, executive director of the nonprofit group, Maryville Academy.

Rev. Smyth said center workers were ``caught unaware`` Monday night by the arrival of about 20 abused and neglected children removed from their homes. He said overcrowding would not be tolerated because ``that`s when children suffer.``

The state agency`s Emergency Service Center operated across the street from Columbus-Maryville until overcrowding caused its closure last August. The old center had only 13 beds and 40 cots, but nearly 90 children sometimes lived there, many sleeping on the floor.

Last May, an 8-year-old boy was raped at the old center, allegedly by two 12-year-olds, and two girls ran away.

When Columbus-Maryville opened, the state agency converted its former center into offices. The six children who slept on cots-four teenage girls, one teenage boy and one 10-year-old boy-were housed in those offices Monday night, agency spokesman David Schneidman said.

Ina Denton, agency deputy director of Cook County operations, said overcrowding at Columbus-Maryville was caused by a growing agency caseload as well as problems finding foster homes for hard-to-place children, such as teenage mothers and their babies.

But Cook County Public Guardian Patrick Murphy said: ``They knew they were going to have a lot of kids needing temporary care. They should have made accommodations.``